22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Gospel Jesus says: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” They worshipped ritually in solemn ways, but this did not translate into deeds filled with love.

Isaiah accuses the people of being more concerned with ritual defilement than with ethical defilement. Yes, we train our altar servers in all the details of the liturgy. This is most appropriate. But in the big picture of the spiritual life, we need to form our altar servers to see the essential connection between participating in the Mass and the team work and sportsmanship and old-fashioned kindness on the ball field.

And so, yes, we can spiritually get lost even when we are obeying the law and seemingly being very religious if our hearts are not filled with the merciful love of Jesus, and we not have the desire to share the merciful love of Jesus with one and all. Our discipleship of Jesus is not about legalism; it is about loving God and neighbor.

In all truth, all of us probably need to acknowledge a bit of hypocrisy when our egos get in the way of reaching out to people in need and reaching out to people whom we find unlovable for whatever reason. There is sin in the world and sin in our own hearts. We always need to recognize our own sinfulness and come before our healing, forgiving God.
The North Star of our spiritual lives is rooted in our faith conviction that there is nothing hypocritical about God’s love for us. It is unconditional and unending. I invite you to hold on to the truth: There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us. God is love.

In the first Scripture reading, Moses said to the people: “Now Israel hear the statues and decrees which I am teaching you to observe; observe them carefully for you to be a wise and intelligent people.”

The laws of God’s people serve like an invisible fence -- the fence you put in your yard to keep your dog from wandering into the street or menacing the jogger out for a bit of exercise or wherever your dog would like to wander to. This fence serves an excellent purpose so that the dog can play in the yard without getting hurt. So too, the Ten Commandments are our invisible fence that helps us to live in right relationship with one another and with our God. They make all the sense in the world.

But strict observance of the law doesn’t determine whether God is going to love us or not. As I said, no matter what, God cannot stop loving us. But the commandments are meant to hold us accountable as to how we respond to God’s great love for us.

In the Gospel, we see the anger of Jesus in confronting the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus says: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Few situations moved Jesus to anger like the hypocrisy of people who distorted the Law’s intent.

Please note that Jesus is not venting against the Pharisees because of their fidelity to religious observance and the ritual tradition. This is a good thing. Jesus labels them hypocrites because the words they spoke from their lips did not come from hearts filled with compassion. They worshipped ritually in solemn ways, but this did not translate into deeds filled with love.

This Gospel is not just meant for the Pharisees, but its message is for each and every one of us. Do we walk our talk in our prayer life and in our celebration of the sacraments? Sometimes we too need spiritual open-heart surgery to see if we are touched by the love of Jesus in the faith that we live. Our prayer needs to touch our heart and thus motivate us to share the love of Jesus with others.

Yes, may all of us pray for spiritual open-heart surgery. We seek to have our hearts filled with the merciful love of Jesus. We seek to have humble, loving hearts.

Jesus is so clear in His teachings. He tells that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Jesus has no problem with the person who ritually washes his hands and still serves the poor and the needy. The problem is with us who make sure to wash our hands but never pay attention to the poor and the needy. Jesus responded to the purity police by citing the prophet Isaiah. Our prayer and liturgy must lead to witnessing to the love of Jesus in our lives. In the dismissal rite of the Mass, I will say: “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives.” This is not a simple throw-away statement to head to the parking lot. This is our call to live the meaning of the Eucharist 24 hours a day. In Eucharist we receive the love of Jesus; in Eucharist we are missioned to live and witness to the love of Jesus in the actions of our lives.

Pope Francis’ favorite image for the Church is to see the Church as a “field hospital,” for all of us are sinners. Using this image can help us to avoid self-righteous attitudes that see the Church and the sacraments as rewards for good behavior.

In today’s Scripture, Jesus gave us a new tradition that begins and ends with love. He asks us to let love transform our hearts and our souls so that we transform the world.

We just celebrated the funerals of two great Americans – Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain. The eulogies they received were very, very moving. In our parish, we just celebrated the funeral of a faith-filled parishioner, Kathy Taddeo. May we be inspired by those who have gone before us to the Lord. May we also inspire each other to fill this world and to live a way of life that witnesses to the reality that we are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus each and every day.